30 Apr 2007 - Gland, Switzerland
– At a US-European Union summit today, the
US is rejecting language committing it to
keeping global warming below the recognized
“danger level” of 2°C. Recent efforts
by German Chancellor and current EU Council
President Angela Merkel to secure support
were rebuffed despite intense diplomatic
discussions.
“US refusal to join Europe in preventing
dangerous climate change leaves the Bush
Administration at odds with climate science,
despite growing public support for action
on global warming,” said Hans Verolme, director
of WWF’s global climate change programme.
"In stark contrast to the EU, the
US Administration has yet to propose an
environmentally responsible climate and
energy policy," he added. “Agreement
between the world’s two strongest economic
regions could have served as a global locomotive
for investments in climate-saving energy
technologies.”
WWF has called on countries to commit to
substantial emission reductions, with the
aim of achieving an 80% cut in industrialized
country emissions by 2050.
A final energy and climate agreement negotiated
by Bush and Merkel establishes a process
for cooperation on efficiency and renewable
energy, but falls far short of the large-scale
investments needed. A second agreement on
improved EU-US economic cooperation should
serve to stir climate-friendly innovation
through actions on product standards and
regulation, intellectual property rights,
investment and financial markets.
WWF believes transatlantic regulatory convergence
should not lead to an undermining of climate
protection policies and measures. The global
conservation organization is asking for
EU-US activities on biofuels to be expanded
to cover all bio-energy sources and technologies
but with the inclusion of strong sustainability
standards.
END NOTES:
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC), the UN body responsible for monitoring
the science of climate change, confirmed
on 2 February the global average temperature
has warmed by 0.7°C since the beginning
of the 20th century, and that human activities
are the cause. Based on the IPCC findings,
EU heads of state committed on 9 March to
reduce emissions by 30% by 2020 compared
to 11000 levels, provided other industrial
countries do their share.
Martin Hiller,
Brian Thomson,
Kathleen Sullivan
+ More
European parliamentarians stick to costly
concrete to manage floods
25 Apr 2007 - Brussels/Strasbourg – The
European Parliament has failed to promote
the sustainable management of floods, warns
the European Environmental Bureau, Friends
of the Earth Europe and WWF.
Voting on the Floods Directive in Strasbourg
today, Members of the European Parliament
stopped short of promoting an approach that
works with natural defences like wetlands,
floodplains and riverbank woodlands.
MEPs took a step towards sustainability
relative to the Council of Ministers' proposed
position, but drew criticism for still condoning
the use of man-made concrete structures
to constrain flooding.
Christian Schweer from Friends of the Earth
Europe said: "As climate change increases
the risk of floods, and water and land keep
being used with insufficient consideration
for natural ecosystems, it is likely that
severe floods will hit Europe more frequently.
Sustainable use of the whole river basin
– particularly preserving and restoring
floodplains – is the only efficient way
to manage flood risks, while building concrete
barriers to constrain rivers is short-sighted
and expensive."
Relying on man-made constructions to manage
floods can be unnecessarily expensive as
concrete flood defences deteriorate over
time and the costs of repairing them rise.
Through their multifunctional properties,
such as provision of drinking water, nutrient
recycling and recreation, floodplains provide
further crucial benefits for society.
The Floods Directive should have included
strict measures to protect floodplains because
these are key habitats for many endangered
species – like beavers, crested newts, European
terrapins, salmon and black kites. But technical
measures such as altering the river course
and the upgrading of dykes will further
degrade the habitats.
Sergiy Moroz from WWF highlighted: "We
have already lost up to 80 per cent of our
natural floodplains and man-made flood defences
will certainly not improve the situation.
This also plays against the EU's objective
to halt the European loss of biodiversity
by 2010."
According to environmental NGOs, the compromise
agreed today will lead to difficulties in
combining the provisions included in the
Floods Directive and the Water Framework
Directive – the cornerstone of EU water
policy.
Pieter de Pous from the European Environmental
Bureau (EEB) added: "Now the EU will
end up with two parallel and possibly conflicting
planning and reporting processes for the
Floods Directive and the Water Framework
Directive, increasing bureaucracy and waste
administrative and public resources. This
directive most certainly does not qualify
as 'better regulation'."
Sergiy Moroz, Water Policy Officer
WWF European Policy Office
